RACISM IN AMERICA
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The seeds of America's racial problems were sown in the colonial period. The enormous power that Whites had over slaves was a crucial factor in the establishment of racism that later became a disease in American society. When Africans were first brought to these shores in 1619 they encountered a culture based on white supremacy. Laws and conventions were firmly established and black people were officially, and morally deprived of any rights.
The attitude of the white power elite continued even after the civil war and the fourteenth amendment, with the passage of Jim Crow laws and various means to keep blacks from participating in voting. Contributing to this suppression was, and is the belief that black people are intellectual inferior and contribute nothing to this nation. This notion is painfully not true, blacks as every ethnic group has contributed to the overall structure of this country. Moreover all people have special individual talents that when used in conduction with one another weaves a special kind of mutual respect and cooperation.
I often think of South Africa when I reflect on the problems that exist in America. The two countries have much the same beginnings but it seems to me that in America they took the idea of white supremacy to its ultimate conclusion, slavery...